With pictures - Sussex go down despite Beer's heroics

Sussex slipped to their third defeat in a row in the NatWest T20 Blast as they lost by four runs to Gloucestershire at Hove.

Ian Cockbain smashed 84 from just 51 balls as the visitors set a formidable total of 189-6 after being put in to bat.

That looked highly unlikely as Sussex slumped to 132-7 with five overs to go despite a 32-ball 49 from Rory Hamilton-Brown.

Steffan Piolet and Will Beer almost pulled off what would have been a sensational win as together they reduced the equation to ten off the last six balls.

Piolet was out for 25 from the second ball of Graeme McCarter’s final over and Beer - who blasted 37 from 17 balls – was unable to hit the last ball for six to get Sussex over the line.

Sussex had made a decent start with the ball with Yasir Arafat knocking out Alex Gidman’s middle stump for 11 in the third over.

It all went downhill from there though as Michael Klinger and Cockbain put on 102 for the second wicket off just 67 balls.

Cockbain dominated the partnership as he reached only his fourth 50 from 34 balls before really starting to cut loose.

He launched Will Beer for two sixes over extra cover off consecutive balls and Gloucestershire’s run rate did not drop once Klinger was caught on the long on boundary having made 28 off 30 balls.

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Cockain was dropped on 70 by Lewis Hatchett and made Sussex pay by launching another big six off Stefan Piolet before holing out on the mid-wicket boundary having made 84 off 51 deliveries.

Rather than slowing Gloucestershire down they actually accelerated. Geraint Jones smashed a towering six which cleared the pavilion while Hamish Marshall also hit a six as the visitors scored 66 from the last five overs to post a daunting total of 189-6.

Sussex’s hopes of chasing down such a big total were already in disarray after four overs as they lost Luke Wright and Ed Joyce in successive balls.

Wright was bowled by Graeme McCarter’s first ball for 10 and Joyce chipped the next delivery to mid-on for a golden duck.

Matt Machan and Hamilton-Brown added 51 for the third wicket before Machan fell for 34 and Sussex’s hopes looked over when Hamilton-Brown, Ben Brown and Arafat all departed in the space of five balls.

Chris Nash made 20 when he was run out to bring Beer to the crease to join Piolet. Beer crashed Benny Howell and Liam Norwell for sixes as he got Sussex right back into the game.

The Sharks needed 22 off the last two overs and got that down to ten from the last six balls to make them marginal favourites.

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There was no dramatic ending to match the last-ball victory against Surrey at Hove, however, as Piolet was dismissed for 25 off the second ball.

Chris Liddle edged a four to get the equation down to five off the last two balls but Liddle and Beer both holed out going for the decisive blow.

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Comments (4)

More poor bowling i'm afraid! Hatchett in the team-really? Missing a few players, but got to do better than this, oh well!

More poor bowling i'm afraid! Hatchett in the team-really? Missing a few players, but got to do better than this, oh well!warwick shark

More poor bowling i'm afraid! Hatchett in the team-really? Missing a few players, but got to do better than this, oh well!

Score: 0

MikeTheMan says...3:18pm Sat 7 Jun 14

Yes the bowling was very poor I assure you (I was there). Hatchett's T20 record is now 3 matches, 0 wickets, 6 overs, 87 runs, economy rate 14.5!!! I hope I don't see him playing T20 again. And Beer should be doing better by now. But, ironically, it was really Arafat who cost us the match. 3 different batsman hit a so-called top death bowler for 6 in his last 2 overs. Very good effort by Beer at the end but in truth much of the batting was poor as well - Joyce and Brown both out first ball, Arafat out second ball. Wright has only played one significant innings in 5, Nash and Machan haven't got any substantial runs. An almost totally unknown bowler got two international players out with his first two balls and when we just needed 10 from the last over, he took 3-5. People can try to make excuses but, sadly, the fact is that we are now a very poor T20 team. We only won 1 match out of 10 last year, the worst record of any of the 18 counties. This year doesn't look as though it will be much better. We beat Middlesex (who everybody has beaten so far) and we stole a win against Surrey (a win is a win but really we were lucky to win that one). Losing to Hampshire is fair enough - they are a far better T20 team than us, But surely we should be good enough to beat Glamorgan and Gloucestershire (who had a very weak looking team).

Yes the bowling was very poor I assure you (I was there). Hatchett's T20 record is now 3 matches, 0 wickets, 6 overs, 87 runs, economy rate 14.5!!! I hope I don't see him playing T20 again. And Beer should be doing better by now. But, ironically, it was really Arafat who cost us the match. 3 different batsman hit a so-called top death bowler for 6 in his last 2 overs.
Very good effort by Beer at the end but in truth much of the batting was poor as well - Joyce and Brown both out first ball, Arafat out second ball. Wright has only played one significant innings in 5, Nash and Machan haven't got any substantial runs. An almost totally unknown bowler got two international players out with his first two balls and when we just needed 10 from the last over, he took 3-5.
People can try to make excuses but, sadly, the fact is that we are now a very poor T20 team. We only won 1 match out of 10 last year, the worst record of any of the 18 counties. This year doesn't look as though it will be much better. We beat Middlesex (who everybody has beaten so far) and we stole a win against Surrey (a win is a win but really we were lucky to win that one). Losing to Hampshire is fair enough - they are a far better T20 team than us, But surely we should be good enough to beat Glamorgan and Gloucestershire (who had a very weak looking team).MikeTheMan

Yes the bowling was very poor I assure you (I was there). Hatchett's T20 record is now 3 matches, 0 wickets, 6 overs, 87 runs, economy rate 14.5!!! I hope I don't see him playing T20 again. And Beer should be doing better by now. But, ironically, it was really Arafat who cost us the match. 3 different batsman hit a so-called top death bowler for 6 in his last 2 overs. Very good effort by Beer at the end but in truth much of the batting was poor as well - Joyce and Brown both out first ball, Arafat out second ball. Wright has only played one significant innings in 5, Nash and Machan haven't got any substantial runs. An almost totally unknown bowler got two international players out with his first two balls and when we just needed 10 from the last over, he took 3-5. People can try to make excuses but, sadly, the fact is that we are now a very poor T20 team. We only won 1 match out of 10 last year, the worst record of any of the 18 counties. This year doesn't look as though it will be much better. We beat Middlesex (who everybody has beaten so far) and we stole a win against Surrey (a win is a win but really we were lucky to win that one). Losing to Hampshire is fair enough - they are a far better T20 team than us, But surely we should be good enough to beat Glamorgan and Gloucestershire (who had a very weak looking team).

Score: 1

Neville says...5:02pm Sat 7 Jun 14

agree with comments we are not functioning as aT20 side and I cannot understand why we employ Liddle,who never plays county cricket,seems folly to have him just for 20 over matches and odd 50 over matches. He is a predictable bowler with no repetoire unfortunately and you always know he will concede lots of runs,especially at the death. Poor performances so far and lacking Stuart Law type of batsman,(Ed Joyce the nearest we have) and I keep asking who is coaching the batsman,because there is no consistency.

agree with comments we are not functioning as aT20 side and I cannot understand why we employ Liddle,who never plays county cricket,seems folly to have him just for 20 over matches and odd 50 over matches. He is a predictable bowler with no repetoire unfortunately and you always know he will concede lots of runs,especially at the death. Poor performances so far and lacking Stuart Law type of batsman,(Ed Joyce the nearest we have) and I keep asking who is coaching the batsman,because there is no consistency.Neville

agree with comments we are not functioning as aT20 side and I cannot understand why we employ Liddle,who never plays county cricket,seems folly to have him just for 20 over matches and odd 50 over matches. He is a predictable bowler with no repetoire unfortunately and you always know he will concede lots of runs,especially at the death. Poor performances so far and lacking Stuart Law type of batsman,(Ed Joyce the nearest we have) and I keep asking who is coaching the batsman,because there is no consistency.

Score: -2

psb196 says...11:27am Sun 8 Jun 14

Ed Joyce, great technician and marvellous 4 day and 50/40 over batsman that he is, should be allowed nowhere near a T20 team.

Ed Joyce, great technician and marvellous 4 day and 50/40 over batsman that he is, should be allowed nowhere near a T20 team.psb196

Ed Joyce, great technician and marvellous 4 day and 50/40 over batsman that he is, should be allowed nowhere near a T20 team.

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